AKRON — According to the eight major offenses tracked by the Akron Police Department and reported in the annual Uniform Crime Report to the FBI, the overall crime rate in Akron is down 12 percent from last year, city officials announced last week.

Police Chief James Nice reported that overall tracked incidents have decreased from 13,448 to 11,842.

“Although our police staffing remains reduced at this time because of budget constraints, as with all our departments, our police force is made up of dedicated officers who are working hard to serve our city,” said Mayor Plusquellic in a news release.

“We have a police test coming up, and my hope is to add more able men and women to our force,” Nice said. “Right now our force is mostly reactionary, meaning we solve crimes after they occur. Having more people on our force will allow us to be more proactive, so that we can aim to prevent some of these crimes from happening in the first place. ”